Field of the Invention
Some embodiments relate to the general field of telecommunications.
More particularly, some embodiments relate to a method of processing messages exchanged between a first user and at least one second user, these messages possibly containing any type of multimedia content, e.g. such as: text; an image; video; etc. Thus, some embodiments apply in preferred but non-limiting manner to short messages of the short message service (SMS) type, multimedia messages of the multimedia messaging service (MMS) type, or indeed electronic messages (emails or messages exchanged using instant messaging).
Description of the Related Art
The democratization of smart phones and tablets means that the number of messages being exchanged nowadays by the users of such equipment is relatively large. It is not always clear to such users how to organize the messages they receive, and in particular how to follow the thread of a conversation, given the multitude of messages received.
Document US 2014/0143684 proposes a method that uses a graphics interface to enable messages received and sent by a user via a terminal to be organized, and more particularly to enable them to be rearranged as a function of contextual information associated with those messages. In that method, the user selects a message on the screen; any new message prepared by the user while that selection is active is linked to the selected message by a contextual link that appears on the screen. That method makes it easy for a user to identify on the screen received and transmitted messages that are linked together.
Although the method described in Document US 2014/0143684 makes it easier for the user to navigate among messages, and in particular among older messages stored on the terminal, it does not address the problem of messages that cross. It can happen that while a user A is preparing (composing) a message for a user B, the user B also sends a message to the user A. FIGS. 1A and 1B illustrate such a situation.
In the example shown in FIG. 1A it is assumed that two users A and B are exchanging messages in the context of a run of messages made up of a plurality of messages that are linked together by a mechanism for answering a previously received message. The messages exchanged during this run of messages are displayed in a display zone ZA provided for this purpose on the screen S of the terminal TA of the user A, and they appear in chronological order of the instant at which they were sent from or received by the terminal TA.
Thus, in the example shown in FIG. 1A, it is assumed by way of example that the user A has sent a message M1=“Hi, how are you?” to the user B, who has answered with a message M2=“Great, what about the match?”. The message M1 sent initially by the user A is displayed in first position relative to the display direction DISP for messages exchanged in the context of the run of messages between A and B. The message M2 received by the terminal TA after sending the message M1 is displayed after the message M1 in the direction DISP (i.e., in this example, under the message M1).
As now shown in FIG. 1B, after receiving the message M2, the user A prepares a message M3 in answer to the message M2 in a composition window W1 provided for this purpose in the display zone ZA. The composition window W1 is associated with a window W2 that presents an action ACT (ACT=“Send” in this example) that may be confirmed at any moment by the user A, enabling the user A to send the message M3 to the user B.
In FIG. 1B, it is assumed that while the user A is composing the message M3, a message M4 comes from the user B. For example, M4=“Did you manage to go?”. In compliance with techniques that exist in the prior art, the message M4 is displayed in the display zone ZA after the message M2, while the message M3 that is being prepared is still present in the composition window W1. Under such circumstances, with presently-existing techniques it becomes difficult for the user A to maintain a coherent timeline for the preparation of messages on the terminal.